TO  DISCONTINUE  THE  ENLISTMENT  OF 
NEGROES  FOR  MILITARY  SERVICE. 

•  2&2S) 

SPEECH 


OF 


Hon.  JAMES  L.  SLAYDEN, 

OF  TEXAS, 


IN  THE 


HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES, 


Tuesday,  January  8,  1907. 


O 


WASHINGTON. 


5  .  £ 

*5.1  \.9t 


SPEECH 

OF 

HON.  JAMBS  L.  SI AIDEIi 
_ 

The  House  being  in  CoJnmittee  of  the  Whole  House  or*  tiiei  state  of 
the  Union  and  having  under  consideration  the  hill  (H.  R.  23551)  mak¬ 
ing  appropriations  for  the  Army  for  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30, 
1908— 

Mr.  SLAYDEN  said : 

Mr.  Chairman  :  Although  I  have  had  the  privilege  of  serving 
in  this  House  for  ten  years,  I  have  not  quite  grown  accustomed 
to  the  habit  of  speaking  to  one  bill  while  another  was  being 
considered.  But  I  have  just  had  an  illustrious  example  of  how 
it  may  be  done,  and  it  has  put  me  somewhat  at  my  ease  in  that 
respect.  For  nearly  half  an  hour  we  have  had  an  active  dis¬ 
cussion  of  a  bill  for  an  increase  of  the  Artillery  Corps,  a  bill 
that  is  not  before  the  House,  and  which,  so  far  as  I  am  in¬ 
formed,  has  not  even  been  considered  yet  by  the  committee  to 
which  it  was  referred.  With  this  example  to  guide  me,  I  shall 
now,  Mr.  Chairman,  beg  the  indulgence  of  the  House  while  I 
talk  upon  a  matter  that  I  wish  to  state  frankly  is  not  here  in 
the  form  of  a  bill. 

Mr.  Chairman,  at  the  beginning  of  the  present  session  I  sub¬ 
mitted  a  bill  to  amend  the  military  laws  so  that  after  July  1, 
1907,  there  would  be  no  negro  regiments  in  the  Army  of  the 
United  States. 

For  a  long  time  I  have  looked  upon  it  as  a  desirable  military 
reform.  .  Recent  events  of  a  startling  and  deplorable  nature  have 
convinced  me  that  it  is  urgent.  It  can  not  be  delayed,  I  appre¬ 
hend,  without  risking  a  collision  between  white  citizens  and 
negro  troops.  There  is  reason  to  fear  that  occasional  assassi¬ 
nation  and  riot  may  be  succeeded  by  disasters  that  will  measure 
up  to  the  standard  of  battle.  Firmly  believing  that,  as  I  did,  I 
regarded  it  as  a  duty  to  try  to  prevent  such  a  condition  by 
amending  the  law.  A  series  of  violent  outbreaks  on  the  part  of 
negro  soldiers,  culminating  in  a  murderous  assault  on  the  unof¬ 
fending  citizens  of  Brownsville,  decided  me  to  offer  the  bill  with¬ 
out  further  delay.  The  bill  was  not  offered  for  buncombe.  I 
proposed  it  because  I  am  absolutely  convinced  that  it  is  a  meas¬ 
ure  of  reform  which  must  ultimately  commend  itself  to  the 
judgment  of  the  American  Congress.  I  very  much  regret  to 
say,  however,  that  there  does  not  appear  to  be  any  immediate 
prospect  of  success.  Like  many  good  legislative  suggestions,  it 
will  probably  have  to  die  the  death  many  times  before  the  mind 
and  conscience  of  a  majority  can  be  awakened.  The  lack  of 
active  sympathy  for  my  measure  among  such  of  my  Republican 
colleagues  as  I  have  spoken  to  about  it  makes  me  realize  that  I 
am  not  apt  to  have  an  opportunity  to  discuss  the  bill  as  pending 
7050  -  3 


4 

before  the  House,  and  so,  Mr.  Chairman,  I  shall  avail  myself  of 
this  occasion  to  speak  of  it. 

In  the  history  of  the  negro  troops  of  the  United  States  one 
finds  many  chapters  that  tell  of  violent  breaches  of  discipline, 
of  riotous  and  mutinous  conduct,  of  murder  and  race  hostility. 
All  these  are  to  be  found  in  the  cold,  formal,  oflicial  reports 
filed  in  the  Department  of  War.  These  reports  are  not  written 
with  any  consideration  of  the  great  politico-social  question  on 
which  .they  have  an  important  bearing,  but  it  takes  no  very 
alert  student  to  find  the  race  question  running  all  through 
them.  As  a  rule,  oflicial  reports  are  lacking  in  vitality,  but 
these,  when  they  touch  even  remotely  the  great,  hopeless, 
and  insoluble  question — and  if  any  question  about  the  affairs 
of  men  is  hopeless  and  insoluble  this  is — that  confronts  a 
layge  (section  of  the  country,  throb  and  vibrate  with  human 
interest. 

In  declaring  their  unfitness  to  be  American  soldiers  I  have 
in  view  only  the  circumstances  of  their  service.  I  do  not  im¬ 
peach  their  physical  courage.  That  is  a  virtue  that  belongs  to 
nearly  all  men,  and  if  there  is  any  difference  between  savage 
and  civilized  man  in  this  respect  it  possibly  lies  with  the 
savage,  who  is  undeterred  from  rash  ventures  by  thought  of 
the  consequences. 

But  courage  is  only  one  of  the  qualities  required  in  a  good 
soldier.  There  should  be  between  him  and  the  people  whose 
uniform  he  wears  perfect  sympathy  and  a  common  aspiration. 
This  sympathy,  this  aspiration,  does  not  exist  between  the 
blacks  and  whites,  and  in  the  very  nature  of  things  can  never 
exist.  It  is  prevented  by  basic  and  unalterable  differences. 

This  may  be  denied  by  some  gentlemen  who  have  only  theo¬ 
retical  knowledge  of  the  negro  or  who  have  at  odd  moments 
studied  in  a  casual  and  superficial  manner  the  occasional  speci¬ 
mens  that  have  been  brought  to  their  attention ;  but  it  is  true 
as  gospel,  as  all  men  know  who  have  studied  the  question  at 
close  range.  Sympathy  of  the  sort  that  welds  people  into  a 
homogeneous  political  and  social  mass  never  has  existed  and 
never  will  exist  between  negroes  and  Caucasians.  It  is  not 
only  contrary  to  nature,  but  so  contradictory  of  human  experi¬ 
ence  that  it  is  folly  to  expect  and  crime  to  build  upon  it.  The  in¬ 
compatibility  of  races  of  a  pronounced  physical  dissimilarity  has 
been  recognized  and  pointed  out  by  many  writers  and  travelers. 
Froude,  in  his  fascinating  book,  The  English  in  the  West  Indies, 
speaks  of  it.  That  distinguished  gentleman,  whose  clear  mind 
and  high  character  all  Americans  admire  and  who  will  soon  be¬ 
come  the  British  Ambassador  to  this  Government,  Mr.  James 
Bryce,  speaks  of  the  negroes  in  this  country  as  “  really  a  differ¬ 
ent  nation  dwelling  beside  or  among,  but  not  intermingled  with, 
the  white  nation.”  As  a  philosopher  and  a  statesman,  and  from 
a  plane  far  above  partisanship,  he  discusses  the  relations  be¬ 
tween  the  colored  and  the  white  races,  or,  as  he  terms  them,  the 
“  advanced  and  the  backward  races  of  mankind.” 

Speaking  at  the  University  at  Oxford,  in  1902,  about  the  natu¬ 
ral  hostility  between  the  races  of  men  who  are  physically  dis¬ 
similar,  he  said: 

Nothing  really  arrests  intermarriage  except  physical  repulsion,  and 
physical  repulsion  exists  only  where  there  is  a  marked  difference  in 
physical  aspect,  and  especially  in  color. 

7050 


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5 


In  the  same  lecture  Mr.  Bryce  directed  the  attention  of  his 
audience  to  the  fact  that  the  feeling  of  repulsion  existed  between 
all  dissimilar  races  and  was  more  or  less  intense  as  the  differ¬ 
ence  in  color  was  more  or  less  pronounced.  There  undoubtedly 
exists  a  marked  race  antipathy  between  the  white  and  the 
Asiatic  races,  though  less  intense  than  that  between  the  Cau¬ 
casian  and  the  negroid  types. 

Charles  Francis  Adams,  of  Massachusetts,  than  whom,  I  take 
it,  the  negroes  never  had  a  better  friend,  who  has  made  a  careful 
study  of  the  race  question,  who  has  even  gone  to  Africa  for  first¬ 
hand  information,  says  “  the  race  prejudice  seems  insurmount¬ 
able.” 

It  is  not  my  duty,  nor  is  this  the  time  or  place,  to  explain,  jus¬ 
tify,  or  condemn  the  feeling.  I  merely  assert  as  a  fact  that -mu¬ 
tual  race  antipathy  does  exist,  that  its  existence  has  been  recog¬ 
nized  by  students  of  the  question  who  have  considered  it  on  a 
plane  far  above  partisan  politics,  and  that  it  is  folly  to  ignore  it 
in  our  legislation.  If  we  persist  in  the  folly,  we  will  surely  end 
in  disaster. 

This  deep-seated  and  ineradicable  race  hostility,  which  grows 
daily  more  acute,  is  not  peculiar  to  the  United  States.  Although 
dormant  "when  apart,  it  is  unfailingly  developed  everywhere  by 
contact  and  competition.  It  has  written  tragic  chapters  into 
the  history  of  Asia,  Africa,  and  Europe.  The  Moors  were  as 
unwelcome  to  the  people  of  the  Spanish  Peninsula  as  the  Chi¬ 
nese  and'  Japanese  are  to  our  fellow-citizens  on  the  Pacific 
coast,  and  it  will  not  do  to  dismiss  the  Pacific  coast  race  ques¬ 
tion  by  saying  that  the  objection  to  Asiatic  immigration  in  Cal¬ 
ifornia  is  only  from  the  hoodlum  element.  It  runs  through  all 
classes  of  society. 

It  was  my  privilege  to  visit  the  city  of  San  Francisco  in  com¬ 
pany  with  a  distinguished  citizen  of  that  city,  then  and  now  a 
Member  of  this  House.  With  him  I  visited  the  Chinese  quarter 
in  that  great  and  unfortunate  city.  Under  his  intelligent  direc¬ 
tion  I  was  shown  how  the  Chinese  question  impinged  upon  every 
phase  of  the  life  of  the  citizens  of  the  city  of  San  Francisco. 
He  indicated  to  me  in  an  unmistakable  way  the  physical  dan¬ 
gers  from  contact,  the  danger  from  disease,  the  opportunities 
for  and  tendency  to  crime,  the  increase  of  all  sorts  of  social  and 
sanitary  conditions  which  are  to  be  avoided  if  possible,  all  due 
to  the  Asiatic  congestion.  Furthermore,  he  showed  me  by  ex¬ 
amples  the  disastrous  competition  of  the  Asiatics  with  the  citi¬ 
zens  of  San  Francisco  and  California,  his  constituents.  He  con¬ 
vinced  me  that  if  this  Congress  did  its  duty  to  the  people  of  the 
American  Union  who  reside,.upon  the  Pacific  coast  it  would  for¬ 
ever  make  it  impossible  that  those  competitors  in  great  numbers 
should  be  permitted  to  come  in  from  Asiatic  countries.  There¬ 
fore,  Mr.  Chairman,  I  think  I  risk  nothing  in  saying  that  what  I 
assert  about  this  race  question  will  be  confirmed  by  every  citizen 
of  California. 

The  race  prejudice  which  exists  on  the  Pacific  coast  is  only 
another  form  of  the  race  question  which  is  presented  to  us  in 
the  South  and  is  not  confined  to  the  hoodlum  element  of  the  city 
of  San  Francisco,  as  many  theoretical  students  of  the  question 
residing  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  United  States  have  held. 
It  sometimes  happens  that  the  man  who  is  slowest  to  think  is 
quickest  to  act,  and  I  have  no  doubt,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  the 
7050 


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violence  which  occasionally  occurs  in  handling  that  question 
in  the  city  of  San  Francisco  has  been  as  much  in  the  thoughts 
of  the  higher  as  in  the  lower  classes  of  society. 

Mr.  KAHN.  Will  the  gentleman  yield  for  a  moment? 

Mr.  SLAYDEN.  -With  pleasure. 

Mr.  KAHN.  In  that  very  connection  I  desire  to  call  the  gen¬ 
tleman’s  attention  to  the  report  that  was  spoken  of  in  the  news¬ 
papers,  which  was  presented  in  the  British  Parliament  some 
months  ago,  with  reference  to  the  condition  of  the  coolies  in  the 
South  African  gold  fields.  The  people  of  California  have  always 
maintained  that  the  oriental  has  vices  which  contaminate  the 
white  race,  and  the  report  which  was  presented  in  the  British 
Parliament  showed  that  the  coolies  in  South  Africa  were  so 
vicious  in  morals  and  indulged  in  vices  so  abhorrent  to  our  civili¬ 
zation  that  the  report  was  proclaimed  to  be  absolutely  unprint¬ 
able.  That  shows  conclusively  that  the  people  of  California, 
who  are  thrown  in  direct  contact  with  these  Asiatics,  are  not  in 
error  in  their  estimate  of  the  morality  of  the  oriental.  [Ap¬ 
plause.] 

Mr.  SLAYDEN.  Mr.  Chairman,  I  will  say  to  my  friend  from 
California  [Mr.  Kahn]  that  my  information  is  as  he  has  stated, 
that  that  report  was  not  printed  because  it  would  not  do  to 
print;  but  I  will  also  say  to  him  that  while  I  sympathize  with 
him,  and  while  I  mean  as  a  Member  of  Congress,  so  long  as  I 
may  have  the  honor  of  being  a  Member  of  this  body,  to  help 
him  solve  that  question  properly.  I  am  not  altogether  sorry  that 
he  has  an  acute  phase  of  it  presented  for  his  consideration  and 
that  of  his  fellow-citizens  out  there  on  the  Pacific.  [Applause 
on  the  Democratic  side.] 

Being  greatly  distressed  at  home  by  what  Mr.  Adams,  of 
Massachusetts,  calls  “  the  insoluble  question,”  my  sympathy  goes 
out  to  the  white  people  of  California  who  have  a  similar  but 
lesser  trouble. 

Admitting  the  existence  of  hostility  between  dissimilar  races 
who,  because  of  circumstances  that  this  generation  can  not  in¬ 
fluence,  occupy  the  same  territory  and  live  under  the  same  politi¬ 
cal  institutions,  is  it  not  unwise  to  arm  the  backward  and  less 
responsible  people  and  station  them  in  the  neighborhood  of  the 
others?  I  think  so,  and  upon  that  belief  my  bill  was  predi¬ 
cated. 

Let  us  now  see  what  facts  bearing  on  this  question  the  rec¬ 
ords  of  the  Department  of  War  will  disclose. 

FORT  MEADE  INCIDENT. 

The  Twenty-fifth  Infantry,  three  companies  of  which  were 
recently  dismissed  the  service  by  Executive  order,  has  a  particu¬ 
larly  vicious  record.  There  seems  to  be  in  the  minds  of  some 
Members  of  this  House  a  good  deal  of  confusion  on  that  point. 
No  companies,  as  companies,  were  discharged.  Men  were  dis¬ 
charged  out  of  three  companies,  and  it  so  happens  that  most  of 
the  men  out  of  three  companies  were  discharged.  The  units 
established  by  law,  the  company  and  the  regiment,  were  not  dis¬ 
turbed. 

To  resume: 

While  stationed  at  Fort  Meade,  Dak.,  in  the  summer,  1885, 
Corporal  Hallon  of  that  regiment  murdered  a  citizen.  The 
people  of  the  community  lynched  the  murderer.  It  is  worth 
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noting  that  even  as  far  north  as  Dakota  an  outraged  public 
does  not  always,  as  it  certainly  should,  await  the  slow  formalities 
of  the  law  to  punish  the  crime  of  assassination.  About  three 
weeks  after  the  lynching  of  the  murderer  fifteen  or  twenty  negro 
soldiers  raided  and  “shot  up”  the  town'of  Sturgis,  which  is 
only  a  mile  and  a  half  from  the  post,  at  about  1  o’clock  in  the 
morning.  They  fired  into  dwellings  and  business  houses  and 
killed  one  man.  According  to  the  testimony  taken  by  the  coro¬ 
ner,  the  raiding,  shooting,  and  killing  was  done  in  a  thorough 
military  manner.  The  murderers  marched  as  an  organized  body 
and  responded  with  fatal  accuracy  to  the  commands  “  ready, 
load,  fire,  etc.” 

There  are  two  points  in  the  official  account  of  the  Sturgis  raid 
which  are  particularly  well  worth  consideration,  A  gentleman 
who  was  present  immediately  wrote  an  interesting  account  of 
it  to  the  President.  I  will  quote  one  paragraph  of  his  letter : 

I  happened  to  be  at  the  fort  last  Saturday  night  when  this  last 
wholesale  shooting  took  place.  I  was  standing  in  front  of  General 
Sturgis’s  quarters  talking  with  him.  We  were  about  going  into  the 
house  when  Lieutenant  Sickles  approached  with  a  sergeant,  and  told 
the  general  that  he  had  seen  some  fifteen  or  twenty  colored  soldiers 
going  toward  Sturgis  with  their  guns.  General  Sturgis  immediately 
ordered  Lieutenant  Sickles  to  take  a  detachment  of  his  men  and  go 
at  once  and  bring  them  back.  A  few  minutes  afterwards  another  lieu¬ 
tenant  came  to  the  house  and  said  he  heard  firing  from  the  direction 
of  Sturgis,  but  he  thought  it  was  at  the  “  Half-Way  House.” 

Perhaps  I  should  have  stated,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  Fort  Meade, 
where  the  troops  were  stationed,  is  a  mile  and  a  half  from 
Sturgis. 

The  general  then  ordered  him  to  take  another  detachment  and  arrest 
the  soldiers. 

It  is  well  worth  while  keeping  in  mind  the  fact  that  all  this 
was  prior  to  the  commitment  of  any  crime  beyond  the  slight 
breach  of  discipline  in  going  out  of  barracks  without  orders. 
It  was  in  anticipation  of  what  really  happened  that  the  general 
acted.  The  letter,  written  on  the  spot  at  once,  goes  on  to  say : 

In  about  a  half  hour  afterwards  a  horseman  came  riding  up  in 
great  haste  and  informed  the  general  that  the  soldiers  had  fired  into 
Abe  Hill’s  house  and  killed  an  inoffensive  cowboy  who  was  standing 
there,  and  that  they  had  also  fired  volleys  into  one  or  two  other  houses. 
General  Sturgis  then  ordered  that  Captain  Ord  should  make  a  check 
roll  call,  examine  the  arms,  and  bring  in  such  as  had  the  appearance 
of  being  recently  fired.  This  was  done.  But  the  fellows  had  scampered 
back  by  short  cuts  over  the  1  7s  and  had  gotten  into  their  bunks  before 
the  roll  call,  which  disclosea  cue  absence  of  only  three,  who,  I  think, 
were  satisfactorily  accounted  for. 

Again  I  ask  that  it  be  observed,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  the  gen¬ 
eral  commanding  and  other  officers  were  advised  of  this  raid 
before  any  harm  was  done;  that  immediate  and  active  steps 
were  taken  to  prevent  mischief ;  yet,  and  notwithstanding, 
fifteen  or  twenty  soldiers  did  travel  miles  to  the  town  of 
Sturgis,  raid  it  in  military  form,  fire  their  guns  in  a  military 
way,  kill  a  citizen,  and  travel  the  same  distance  back  to  the  post 
and  escape  identification.  And  yet  there  are  eminent  gentlemen 
who  say  that  it  was  impossible  for  men  out  of  the  three  com¬ 
panies  at  Brownsville  to  go  two  squares  and  back  without  de¬ 
tection  when  the  officers  were  not  forewarned.  The  other  point 
that  particularly  merits  attention  is  the  fact  that  no  negro  wh® 
had  knowledge  of  the  identity  of  the  raiders  and  murderers 
*7  would  tell  what  he  knew.  Moreover,  I  may  say  to  gentlemen 

7050 


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on  the  other  side  of  the  aisle,  the  conspiracy  of  silence  is  a  habit 
in  the  Twenty-fifth  Infantry  and  a  well-known  characteristic  of 
the  race. 

AT  WINNEMUCCA. 

Winnemucca,  Nev.,  is  the  next  scene  of  a  criminal  outbreak 
by  this  regiment.  In  June,  1899,  while  on  the  way  to  the 
Philippines,  a  train  load  of  the  men  of  the  Twenty-fifth  was 
halted  at  Winnemucca  for  supper.  As  soon  as  the  station  was 
reached  the  officers  went  to  the  hotel  for  supper,  and  the  men, 
who  were  under  no  restraint  whatever,  according  to  the  judge- 
advocate,  Major  Groesbeck,  scattered  through  the  town.  They 
invaded  a  saloon  in  large  numbers  and  soon  became  boisterous 
and  took  possession  of  the  bar.  They  seized  and  took  away 
the  liquors  and  shot  and  wounded  the  barkeeper.  All  efforts 
to  identify  the  perpetrators  of  the  outrage  were  futile.  No 
negro  would  tell,  and  so  the  guilty,  aided  again  by  the  con¬ 
spiracy  of  silence,  escaped  detection  and  punishment. 

THE  SAN  CARLOS  AFFAIR. 

In  October,  1899,  at  the  San  Carlos  Indian  Agency,  Ariz., 
twelve  or  fifteen  men  of  the  company  of  the  Twenty-fifth  In¬ 
fantry  then  stationed  there  made  a  murderous  attack  upon  four 
peaceful  Indians,  beating  them  to  insensibility  with  clubs.  In 
this  instance  four  of  the  would-be  murderers  turned  states  evi¬ 
dence,  and  I  presume  the  others  were  punished.  General  Mer- 
riam,  who  commanded  the  department  at  the  time,  advised  the 
removal  of  the  negro  soldiers  and  expressed  the  opinion  that 
“  white  men  would  likely  make  less  trouble.’’ 

I  regret,  Mr.' Chairman,  that  General  Merriam  failed  to  say 
why  white  men  would  be  apt  to  make  less  trouble,  but  that  he 
did  say  so  and  that  he  must  have  had  an  excellent  military  reason 
for  it  is  beyond  all  doubt.  I  commend  his  suggestion  to  the 
Members  of  this  House  and  ask  them  to  consider  why  the  recom¬ 
mendation  made  by  the  commanding  officer  at  the  time  that 
the  guard  was  sent  to  replace  those  who  had  been  mutinous, 
boisterous,  and  murderous  should  be  for  white  men. 

AT  EL  TASO. 

Apparently  when  the  War  Department  has  been  in  doubt  as  to 
where  negro  troops  are  to  be  stationed  they  are  sent  to  Texas, 
and  so,  after  the  murderous  assault  on  the  Indians  made  it 
necessary  to  remove  them  from  the  San  Carlos  Agency,  Company 
C,  of  the  Twenty-fifth  Infantry,  was  sent  to  El  Paso.  I  dare 
say  there  was  no  other  place  they  could  be  sent  without  meet¬ 
ing  with  a  protest,  for  no  place,  North  or  South,  seems  to  want 
them.  As  bearing  on  this  point,  I  ask  attention  to  a  letter  writ¬ 
ten  to  Senator  Culberson  on  the  4th  day  of  June,  two  months 
and  nine  days  before  the  trouble  at  Brownsville,  in  which  Secre¬ 
tary  Taft  said : 

The  fact  is  that  a  certain  amount  of  race  prejudice  between  white 
and  black  seems  to  have  become  almost  universal  throughout  the  coun¬ 
try,  and  no  matter  where  colored  troops  are  sent  there  are  always  some 
who  make  objections  to  their  coming. 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  would  that  I  had  the  privilege  of  taking 
this  House  into  my  confidence  and  telling  them  some  stories 
about  the  stationing  of  these  colored  troops  which  I  have  re¬ 
ceived  from  such  sources  and  from  gentlemen  whose  identity 
1  can  not  reveal.  Suffice  it  to  say,  however,  that  the  most 
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vehement  protest  against  the  stationing  of  these  colored  troops 
in  the  vicinity  of  the  communities  represented  by  the  spokesmen 
in  protest  have  been  received  from  the  North,  and  very  far 
North  at  that — a  large  part  of  it. 

However,  they  were  sent  to  El  Paso  in  3899  and  took 
tion  at  Fort  Bliss.  They  arrived  at  El  Paso-  about  the  middle 
of  November,  1899,  and  in  just  three  months  their  deviltry 
began.  A  number  of  men  out  of  Company  A  “  took  rifles  from 
the  arms  racks  and  wrent  to  the  city  jail  of  El  Paso,  where 
two  soldiers  were  held  for  trial  by  the  city  authorities  on  charge 
of  drunk  and  disorderly,  fired  into  the  city  jail,  killing  one 
policeman  on  duty  there.”  I  quote  this  from  the  language  of 
Captain  Loughborough,  who  reported  the  affair. to  the  Adjutant- 
General  of  the  Department  of  Texas.  The  well-attested  facts 
in  this  case  are  these :  On  the  night  of  February  16  Corporal 
Dyson,  of  Company  A,  Twenty-fifth  Infantry,  was  arrested 
for  being  drunk  and  disorderly  and  confined  in  the  city  lockup. 
Sergt.  John  Kipper  and  two  privates  went  to  the  jail  and  en¬ 
deavored  to  secure  Dyson’s  release  by  offering  to  give  a  bond 
for  his  appearance,  but  was  informed  that  the  only  officer  who 
had  authority  to  release  Dyson  had  gone  home  and  would  not 
return  until  morning. 

Kipper  and  the  others  then  went  away,  but  returned  to  the  jail 
at  5  o’clock  in  the  morning  with  guns  and  axes  and  undertook 
to  release  their  comrade  by  force.  In  the  resulting  melee  Po¬ 
liceman  Newton  Stewart  was  killed,  as  was  one  of  the  soldiers. 
Eight  Army  rifles,  it  developed,  had  been  taken  from  the  gun 
racks,  and  six  of  them  were  ultimately  recovered.  The  guilty 
men  were  arrested,  with  the  exception  of  one  who  deserted  and 
ran  away  from  the  country.  One  noncommissioned  officer,  Cor¬ 
poral  Powell,  confessed.  It  is  a  pleasure  to  say  that  to  Captain 
Loughborough,  a  zealous  and  capable  officer,  is  very  largely  due 
the  credit  of  securing  the  evidence  which  convicted  the  mur¬ 
derers.  Sergeant  Kipper,  one  of  the  noncommissioned  officers 
in  whom  some  people  place  so  much  confidence,  was  tried  and 
convicted,  and,  on  appeal,  the  conviction  was  affirmed.  The  report 
of  Gen.  Cyrus  A.  Roberts,  then  lieutenant-colonel  of  the  Thir¬ 
teenth  Infantry,  and  acting  adjutant-general,  Department  of 
Texas,  who  examined  into  the  circumstances,  is  an  interesting 
review  of  the  situation  and  of  the  incidents  leading  up  to  the 
crime.  While  he  does  not  say  in  the  same  direct,  blunt  way  that 
Major  Blocksom  did  when  he  reported  on  the  Brownsville  affair 
that  “  the  causes  of  the  disturbance  are  racial,”  it  means  the 
same  thing. 

To  some  extent  I  am  trying  to  follow  these  reports  on  the  mis¬ 
deeds  of  the  Twenty-fifth  Infantry  in  chronological  order,  and 
the  next  on  the  list  is  the  occurrence  at  Fort  Niobrara,  Nebr. 
I  shall  not  weary  the  House  with  a  repetition  of  the  details. 

Mr.  STEPHENS  of  Texas.  If  my  colleague  will  permit  me, 
I  desire  to  state  that  at  the  time  of  the  incident  at  El  Paso  it 
was  a  part  of  the  district  I  then  represented,  and  I  am  well  ac¬ 
quainted  with  the  circumstances  that  occurred  there.  This  man 
who  was  killed  was  an  ex-soldier  of  the  Spanish  war.  His 
name  was  Stewart.  He  was  the  only  support  of  his  father  and 
mother,  who  were  very  old  and  poor  and  were  dependent  upon 
him.  He  was  at  the  time  of  the  incident  a  jail  guard.  When 
these  parties  were  arrested  and  put  in  jail,  this  young  man  was 
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on  guard  and  was  killed.  I  tried  to  get  them  a  house  built,  and 
endeavored  to  secure  a  pension  for  these  old  people,  but  failed, 
as  the  bill  was  turned  down  by  the  committee,  and  I  am  unable 
to  state  their  condition  at  the  present  time ;  but  it  certainly  was 
horrible. 

Mr.  SLAYDEN.  I  think  that  the  committee,  under  the  circum¬ 
stances,  might  have  departed  from  its  rule  and  granted  a  pen¬ 
sion  to  these  unfortunate  people,  who  had  been  deprived  of  their 
support  by  soldiers  of  the  country. 

Suffice  it  to  say  that  it  has  been  described  by  C.  H.  Cornell, 
chairman  of  the  Republican  Congressional  committee  of  the 
Sixth  Nebraska  district,  as  a  “  wanton  and  cold-blooded  mur¬ 
der,”  committed  by  soldiers  of  the  Twenty-fifth  Infantry  with 
Krag-Jorgensen  guns.  In  commenting  a  few  days  ago  on  the 
outbreak  at  Brownsville,  Mr.  Cornell  says  of  the  Niobrara  in¬ 
cident  : 

Although  the  murdered  one  was  of  their  own  color  and  without 
character,  the  act  was  no  less  a  crime  than  the  like  one  which  fol¬ 
lowed  it  in  Brownsville,  and  only  emphasizes  the  necessity  of  some  form 
of  salutary  punishment.  While  the  soldiers  might  justify  silence  in 
the  latter  case  on  account  of  fear  lest  a  fair  trial  could  not  be  had  in 
Texas,  no  such  excuse  could  prevail  here,  since  the  murdered  one  was 
not  a  citizen  of  this  community,  but  a  woman  of  their  own  race  in 
whom  no  one  would  have  any  special  interest,  and  the  trial  could  have 
been  purely  on  its  merits  without  prejudice  against  the  prisoners. 
Yet  those  who  possessed  the  necessary  information  were  as  silent  in 
the  former  as  in  the  latter  instance. 

I  want  to  assure  Mr.  Cornell  that  there  was  no  more  need  for 
the  conspiracy  of  silence  at  Brownsville,  Tex.,  than  at  Valen¬ 
tine,  Nebr.  He  should  not  forget  that  Sergeant  Kipper,  who 
murdered  an  officer  of  the  city  of  El  Paso,  had  a  fair  trial  and 
was  convicted  on  the  testimony  of  his  fellow-criminals. 

For  a  few  minutes,  Mr.  Chairman,  I  will  leave  the  history  of 
the  Twenty-fifth  Infantry — that  regiment  which  so  richly  de¬ 
serves  the  title  of  “  Bloody  Twenty-fifth  ” — and  ask  your  atten¬ 
tion  to  the  conduct  of  other  colored  organizations  in  the  Army. 

AT  SUGGS,  WYO. 

In  June,  1892,  Suggs,  Wyo.,  wras  the  scene  of  disorders,  and 
some  of  the  men  of  the  Ninth  Cavalry  (colored)  were  the  evil¬ 
doers.  Maj.  C.  S.  Ilsley,  of  the  Ninth  Cavalry,  said  that  the 
trouble  was  due  to  quarrels  about  lewd  women,  but  he  says 
there  was  a  bitter  feeling  between  the  citizens  of  Suggs  and  the 
troopers  on  account  of  the  color  of  the  soldiers. 

Twenty  of  the  troopers,  armed  with  carbines  and  revolvers, 
raided  the  town  and  fired  “  volley  after  volley,”  according  to 
Major  Guilfoyle,  into  the  houses  of  the  citizens.  Major  Guil- 
foyle  says,  in  his  report  to  the  camp  adjutant,  that  “  the  feeling 
against  the  troops  has  been  and  is  very  bitter,  being  perhaps 
intensified  by  race  prejudice.”  The  soldiers  acted  in  military 
concert  in  this  as  in  other  cases. 

AT  HUNTSVILLE,  ALA. 

The  members  of  the  Tenth  Cavalry  (colored),  at  Huntsville, 
Ala.,  in  October,  1898,  made  an  attack  on  the  provost  guard  in 
an  effort  to  release  one  of  their  comrades  who  was  under  arrest 
for  the  use  of  vile  and  abusive  language.  Maj.  E.  D.  Thomas 
said  of  it : 

This  unprovoked  assault  and  mutinous  interference  with  the  provost 
guard  caused  the  shedding  of  innocent  blood,  bad  feeling  between  organ¬ 
izations,  and  endangered  the  lives  of  peaceable  citizens,  terrorized  the 
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community  in  the  vicinity  of  the  railroad  depot,  and  scandalized  and 
disgraced  the  military  service,  which  calls  for  the  severest  condemnation. 

He  also  said : 

It  is  impossible  for  me  to  give  the  names  of  the  ringleaders.  This 
could  not  he  ascertained  by  any  known  means.  The  people  connected 
with  the  colored  organization  throughout  this  investigation  have  studi¬ 
ously  avoided  stating  or  giving  names  of  principal  instigators  of  ths 
riot,  in  my  opinion  trying  to  shield  the  organization  from  censure  and 
endeavoring  to  shift  the  responsibility  and  blame  for  this  disgraceful 
affray  on  other  and  innocent  parties. 

Here  it  will  be  observed,  Mr.  Chairman,  as  elsewhere,  there 
was  a  conspiracy  of  silence  on  the  part  of  the  black  troops. 

THE  AFFAIR  AT  FORT  CONCHO. 

In  1881  men  from  the  Sixteenth  Infantry  and  Tenth  Cavalry, 
stationed  at  Fort  Concho,  in  Texas,  numbering  about  150,  raided 
and  “  shot  up  ”  the  town  of  San  Angelo,  a  mile  or  two  distant. 
General  Grierson,  who  commanded  at  the  post,  said  tfiat  he  had 
reason  to  believe  that  three  noncommissioned  officers  and  two 
privates  were  the  leading  spirits. 

This  again  helps  to  destroy  faith  in  the  suggestion  that  the 
noncommissioned  officers  of  these  negro  regiments  can  be  relied 
on  to  keep  their  men  in  order  and  restrain  them  from  the  per¬ 
petration  of  crime.  Residents  of  the  city  of  San  Angelo  have 
lately  written  me  that  hundreds  of  shots  were  fired  into  build¬ 
ings  occupied  by  citizens  of  both  sexes  and  all  ages.  Fortunately 
only  one  person  was  wounded.  These  negro  soldiers  arrested 
the  sheriff  of  the  county  and  demanded  that  a  prisoner  held  by 
him  on  the  charge  of  murder  be  turned  over  to  them,  mani¬ 
festly  with  the  idea  of  lynching  him. 

They  defied  and  held  in  contempt  the  civil  authorities. 

AT  SAN  ANTONIO. 

On  the  9th  of  April,  1867,  as  the  records  of  the  War  Depart¬ 
ment  will  show,  Company  E,  of  the  Ninth  United  States  Cavalry, 
colored,  while  stationed  at  San  Antonio,  Tex.,  was  guilty  of 
mutiny.  The  first  sergeant  at  the  head  of  his  company  attacked 
and  killed  Lieutenant  Griffin  and  seriously  wounded  Lieutenants 
Heyl  and  Smith. 

KEY  WEST  INCIDENT. 

However,  the  Twenty-fifth  Infantry  has  been  conspicuous, 
even  among  the  negro  troops,  for  its  persistent  career  of  crime 
and  mutiny.  In  1898,  while  on  the  way  to  Cuba,  the  regiment 
was  delayed  a  few  days  in  Key  West.  What  they  did  there  to 
maintain  their  record  of  insurrection  and  contempt  for  law  is 
told  in  the  following  language  by  the  sheriff  of  Monroe  County. 
Please  obsefVe  that  the  statement  is  sworn  to.  I  have  a  letter 
from  an  attorney  of  Key  West,  who  was  then  police  judge, 
which  confirms  the  statement  of  the  sheriff  and  which  also  says 
that  a  drunken  soldier,  whom  he  was  arresting,  fired  his  pistol 
at  the  officer. 

State  of  Florida,  Monroe  County: 

Before  the  undersigned  authority  personally  appeared  Frank  W. 
Knight,  who,  being  duly  sworn,  says  :  That  I  was  sheriff  of  Monroe 
County,  Fla.,  in  May,  1898,  and  that  the  Twenty-fifth  United  States 
Infantry  (colored)  was  at  that  time  in  the  city  of  Key  West  awaiting 
orders  for  Cuba.  That  on  the  20th  day  of  April,  anno  Domini  1898, 
at  about  10  p.  m.  of  the  same  day,  one  Henry  A.  Williams  (colored) 
and  one  of  the  men  belonging  to  the  Twenty-fifth  United  States  Infantry 
was  brought  to  jail  by  the  city  police,  charged  with  an  assault  with 
intent  to  kill ;  that  at  about  1  a.  m.  next  morning  at  least  thirty  or 
forty  of  the  soldiers  belonging  to  said  Twenty-fifth  United  States  In- 
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fantry,  armed  with  their  guns,  came  to  the  jail  and  surrounded  the 
jail,  and  came  to  the  door  of  said  jail  and  demanded  the  said  Williams, 
saying  that  if  he  was  not  delivered  to  them  they  would  break  the  jail 
down.  I  being  overpowered  and  no  arms  to  defend  myself  and  the  rest 
of  the  prisoners  in  jail  and  fearing  trouble  might  come  to  all  in 
jail,  thought  it  best  to  deliver  said  prisoner  to  them,  intending  to  re¬ 
port  the  matter  to  the  commanding  officer  at  the  barracks  the  next 
morning.  Deponent  further  says  that  another  reason  why  he  delivered 
the  prisoner  over  to  them  was  because  he  had  other  prisoners  in  jail 
charged  with  murder,  and  he  feared  that  if  he  did  not  turn  over  this 
man  they  would  carry  their  threats  into  execution,  and  he  would  then 
lose  those  who  he  had  confined  for  murder.  That  the  conduct  of  these 
men  was  boisterous,  and  they  were  crying  out  all  the  time  that  if  I 
did  not  turn  this  man  over  they  would  riddle  me  with  bullets  and  that 
there  would  not  be  a  brick  left  in  the  building. 

Sworn  to  and  subscribed  before  me  this  the  27th  day  of  December, 
A.  D.  1906. 

F.  W.  Knight. 

Sheriff  Monroe  County,  Fla. 

L.  W.  Bethel, 

Notary  Public,  State  of  Florida  at  Large. 

BROWNSVILLE. 

And  now,  Mr.  Chairman,  I  shall  say  a  few  words  about  the 
latest  outbreak  of  negro  soldiers — that  of  Brownsville  on  the 
night  of  the  13th  of  August,  1906. 

The  main  facts  in  this  case  are  too  well  known  to  require  re¬ 
statement.  I  merely  want  to  comment  on  some  of  the  pleas  put 
forward  for  the  defense.  The  theory  advanced  by  some  emi¬ 
nent  gentlemen  about  the  murder  of  Frank  Natus  and  the 
wounding  of  Policeman  Dominguez  is  so  preposterous  that  citi¬ 
zens  of  Brownsville,  when  advised  that  it  would  be  made,  re¬ 
fused  to  believe  it  The  Secretary  of  War  well  says : 

The  suggestion  that  a  body  of  men  sharing  the  hostility  of  the  people 
of  the  town  should  dress  themselves  in  the  cast-off  clothing  of  the  col¬ 
ored  soldiers  ;  should  visit  the  army  target  range  some  15  or  20  pules 
from  the  post  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  used  cartridge  shells  and 
clips,  and  then  go  through  the  town  firing  from  100  to  150  shots  into 
houses  where  women  and  children  were  likely  to  be  killed  ;  should  ac¬ 
tually  kill  one  man  and  attack  the  police  of  the  town  and  nearly  kill  its 
lieutenant,  and  should  then  sprinkle  the  cartridge  shells  and  clips  on  the 
streets  of  the  town,  all  merely  for  the  purpose  of  making  a  case  of 
murder  and  riot  against  the  colored  troops  and  of  thus  securing  their 
removal  in  the  interest  of  the  townspeople  whose  lives  had  been  thus 
taken  or  endangered,  is.  so  grotesque  in  its  improbability  and  absurdity 
as  hardly  to  call  for  discussion  or  comment. 

In  reply  to  those  gentlemen  who  say  that  the  soldiers  could 
not  have  left  their  barracks,  made  the  raid  through  the  streets 
of  Brownsville,  fired  into  the  Miller  Hotel  and  other  buildings, 
killed  Frank  Natus  and  wounded  Dominguez,  and  then  have 
returned  to  the  post  in  the  time  claimed  and  without  detection, 
I  direct  their  attention  to  what  men  of  the  same  regiment  did  at 
Sturgis,  in  Dakota.  In  that  case  they  went  1 \  miles  from  Fort 
Meade  to  the  town  of  Sturgis,  “  shot  up  ”  the  town,  and  killed 
one  man,  and  got  back  to  their  post  without  being  identified. 
Thus,  it  will  be  observed,  they  must  have  traveled  approximately 
3  miles. 

At  Brownsville  the  post  is  separated  from  the  town  by  only 
a  stone  wall,  and  the  entire  raid  did  not  cover  over  750  yards. 
At  Fort  Meade  the  commanding  officer  and  his  subordinates 
were  advised  of  the  raid  as  soon  as  it  was  undertaken,  and 
General  Sturgis,  in  the  language  of  an  eyewitness,  “  immediately 
ordered  Lieutenant  Sickles  to  take  a  detachment  of  his  men 
and  go  at  once  and  bring  them — the  raiders — back.” 

At  Brownsville  the  commanding  officer,  Major  Penrose,  knew 

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nothing  of  the  raid  until  it  was  over,  and  refused  to  believe 
that  his  men  were  in  it  until  convinced  by  evidence  of  their 
guilt. 

General  Sturgis,  commanding  at  Fort  Meade,  at  once  ordered 
Captain  Ord  to  make  a  check  roll  call,  examine  the  arms  and 
bring  in  all  that  had  the  appearance  of  being  recently  fired. 
Major  Penrose,  I  believe,  did  order  a  roll  call,  but  the  arms 
were  not  inspected  until  the  next  morning,  and  when  inspected 
wrere,  of  course,  found  to  be  bright  and  clean.  To  pull  a  small 
piece  of  cloth  through  a  gun  barrel  is  the  work  of  a  second,  and 
so  far  as  evidence  in  this  case  goes  the  inspection  might  as  well 
have  been  delayed  a  week. 

THE  MOTIVE. 

I  fancy  very  few  crimes  are  committed  without  the  criminal 
having  some  reason  for  his  acts — either  revenge  or  gain.  In 
this  case  it  is  not  difficult  to  find  the  causes — at  least  some  of 
the  minor  causes.  In  his  telegram  of  the  20th  to  the  Military 
Secretary,  Major  Blocksom  mentions  what  he  thinks  are  the 
causes.  The  first  he  names  is  racial  hostility.  Then  he  men¬ 
tions  the  fact  that  the  soldiers  were  made  to  drink  at  separate 
bars,  and  personal  encounters  between  soldiers  and  citizens  as 
other  reasons.  He  might  have  stopped  with  the  first  reason 
given,  for  it  embraces  the  second  and  is  the  explanation  of  the 
others.  The  soldiers  had  been  advised  that  the  people  of 
Brownsville  did  not  want  them  there,  and  they  arrived  in  an 
ugly  mood.  I  have  letters  stating  that  on  the  way  down  they 
asked  the  conductor  of  the  Brownsville  train  if  there  were  white 
women  in  the  town  whose  favor  they  might  expect.  They  were 
insolent  in  their  bearing  with  citizens  and  particularly  rude  to¬ 
ward  women. 

Fortunately  for  the  citizens  of  Brownsville,  whose  politics 
might  be  thought  by  some  gentlemen  to  have  caused  the  trouble, 
in  the  only  two  occasions  on  which  soldiers  were  personally  as¬ 
saulted  the  rows  were  with  Federal  officeholders  who  are  Repub¬ 
licans. 

Fred  Tate,  inspector  of  customs,  in  his  report  to  the  collector, 
says  that  a  negro  soldier  pushed  and  elbowed  his  way  through  a 
crowd  of  ladies,  one  of  whom  was  Mrs.  Tate,  and  jostled  and 
rubbed  against  them  in  a  rude  manner.  This  act  of  deliberate 
rudeness  provoked  the  anger  of  Mr.  Tate,  who  did  what  most 
men  under  the  circumstances  would  have  done,  and  what  was 
perfectly  proper  for  him  to  do,  in  knocking  the  soldier  down. 

Mounted  Inspector  Baker,  another  Republican  Federal  office 
holder,  tried  to  prevent  a  quarrel  between  two  drunken  soldiers 
and  a  ferryman  and  to  stop  a  torrent  of  foul  abuse  pouring  out 
of  the  mouths  of  the  soldiers,  and  in  doing  so,  to  use  his  own 
language,  “  pushed  one  of  them  forward.”  The  soldier  was  too 
drunk  to  keep  his  balance  on  the  sidewalk  and  stepped  off  into 
a  mudhole.  Baker  adds,  “As  the  negro  walked  off  he  said,  ‘  We 
will  see  about  this  to-morrow.’  ” 

Two  soldiers  did  hunt  Baker  the  next  day  and,  as  he  believes, 
for  the  purpose  of  making  a  row,  but  finding  him  prepared  and 
evidently  willing,  they  became  discreet  and  left  without  doing 
any  harm. 

On  the  12th  of  August,  just  twenty-four  hours  before  the  as¬ 
sault  on  the  town,  Mrs.  Evans,  a  highly  respectable  woman  and 
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wife  of  a  worthy  citizen,  was  seized  by  the  hair  and  thrown  vio¬ 
lently  to  the  ground  by  a  soldier  in  uniform. 

These  incidents  accentuated  the  feeling  of  hostility  between  the 
soldiers  and  citizens — a  hostility  which  always  and  most  signifi¬ 
cantly  runs  along  race  lines.  They  show  a  state  of  mind  which 
leads  up  to  and  explains  the  actual  assault  on  the  town,  and,  in 
my  opinion,  they  clearly  show  the  unwisdom  of  putting  negro 
soldiers  in  a  station  near  communities  of  white  people. 

It  seems  too  absurd,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  at  this  late  day  we 
should  be  asking  who  did  the  shooting.  I  fail  to  see  how  there 
is  room  for  honest  doubt.  If  the  -soldiers  had  been  white  and 
the  circumstances  the  same,  if  the  same  mass  of  clear,  strong 
evidence  against  them  had  been  submitted,  and  if  the  President 
had  dismissed  them  from  the  service  in  the  same  manner,  there 
not  only  would  have  been  no  doubt  as  to  who  were  the  murder¬ 
ers,  but  the  action  of  the  President  would  have  been  almost 
unanimously  approved.  But,  then,  the  whites  are  not  a  val¬ 
uable  political  asset  handled  in  bulk,  which  explains  many 
things. 

Does  any  sane  man  believe  the  stupid  suggestion  that  the 
white  citizens  of  Brownsville,  because  of  their  hostility  toward 
black  soldiers,  fired  into  their  own  houses  and  killed  one  of 
their  own  people,  at  the  same  time  endangering  the  lives  of 
their  women  and  children?  Such  a  theory  is  an  insult  to  the 
intelligence  of  the  country  and  seeks  to  put  the  people  of 
Brownsville  below  the  beasts  of  the  field.  Even  the  dumb 
brutes  love  their  young  and  will  protect  them.  Shots  were  de¬ 
liberately  fired  into  a  house  which  only  a  few  minutes  before 
had  been  the  scene  of  a  children’s  party  and  which  still  had  a 
number  of  occupants.  By  the  merest  chance  no  one  was  killed, 
for  the  shots  took  effect  only  4|  feet  above  the  floor.  Surely 
sectional  and  political  prejudice  has  gone  the  limit  in  this  cruel 
suggestion. 

If  it  is  seriously  urged,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  the  people  of 
Brownsville  did  this  shooting,  I  most  solemnly  protest  against 
the  reflection  on  their  marksmanship.  I  do  not  believe  that  you 
could  find  any  community  in  the  United  States,  even  that  least 
accustomed  to  the  use  of  arms,  who  could  not  hit  the  barracks 
buildings  at  Fort  Brown,  at  which  the  people  of  this  Texas  town 
are  said  to  have  fired.  I  know  there  is  no  such  community  in 
the  State  of  Texas.  Had  the  people  of  Brownsville  been  armed 
with  these  rifles  and  doing  the  shooting  on  that  awful  August 
night  the  list  of  casualties  would  have  been  longer  and  the  dead 
and  wounded  would  not  all  have  come  from  one  side.  [Ap¬ 
plause.] 

A  few  days  ago  I  read  in  the  Washington  Herald  a  statement 
made  by  a  retired  officer  of  the  British  army  who,  although  he 
spoke  guardedly,  as  becomes  a  visitor  to  the  country,  did  not 
conceal  his  surprise  at  the  fact  that  black  soldiers  are  kept  in 
our  Army  for  service  in  times  of  peace.  He  said  that  Great 
Britain,  even  under  the  stress  of  war  and  in  the  face  of  repeated 
disasters,  did  not  employ  them  against  the  Boers  in  South 
Africa.  He  assigned  as  a  reason  for  the  British  policy  the  ad¬ 
mitted  prejudice,  mutually  entertained,  of  the  races.  I  mention 
this,  Mr.  Chairman,  to  show  that  the  people  of  the  United 
States  are  not  peculiar  in  this  respect.  I  say  the  people  of  the 
United  States,  instead  of  the  people  of  the  South,  because  of 
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comparatively  recent  events  which  show  that  this  prejudice 
does  not  stop  at  Mason  and  Dixon’s  line.  Lynchings  are  a  dis¬ 
grace,  I  admit,  and  they  should  be  made  impossible  by  the  en¬ 
actment  of  such  intelligent  laws  and  by  such  prompt  and  rigid 
enforcement  of  them  that  no  man’s  thoughts  -would  ever  turn  in 
that  direction  for  the  punishment  of  crime.  But  they  are  not 
peculiar  to  the  South.  They  are  only  more  frequent  there  be¬ 
cause  of  multiplied  instances  of  crime  of  a  frightful  sort.  Even 
Springfield,  Ohio,  if  the  press  and  that  entertaining  essayist, 
Ray  Stanard  Baker,  tell  the  truth,  has  on  occasions  resorted  to 
lynching.  And  strangely  enough  the  mob  spirit  was  largely  di¬ 
rected  by  race  prejudice.  The  lynching  of  a  negro  criminal  at 
Springfield  in  March,  1904,  was  followed  by  a  very  carnival  of 
crime  directed  at  the  black  inhabitants  of  that  city.  Not  only 
was  there  evidence  of  prejudice  against  the  particular  criminals, 
but  it  seemed  to  have  been  directed  against  the  whole  negro 
race.  They  were  hunted  out  of  their  homes  and  their  property 
destroyed  by  fire.  Mr.  Baker  describes  the  situation  in  this 
way: 

The  public  was  apathetic.  No  one  seemed  to  care ;  only  a  nigger  had 
been  hanged. 

Danville,  Ill.,  was  also  the  scene  of  a  manifestation  of  race 
prejudice,  -which  the  writer  says  is  growing  with  the  growth  of 
the  negro  population.  It  would-  not  be  difficult  to  multiply 
these  illustrations  of  the  fact  that  the  race  prejudice  which 
exists  in  the  South,  and  which  we  admit,  is  also  to  be  found  in 
the  North,  but  usually  denied.  The  newspapers  give  us  over¬ 
whelming  evidence  of  it  every  day. 

As  I  have  already  said,  I  fear  that  we  have  not  yet  reached 
the  stage  where  we  will  legislate  on  this  mqtter  intelligently 
and  for  conditions  as  we  find  them.  But  we  will  reach  it  by 
and  by. 

After  a  few  incidents  like  those  at  Fort  Meade,  San  Carlos, 
El  Paso,  and  Brownsville  Congress  will  be  really  aroused  to  a 
discharge  of  its  duty  in  this  matter.  Repeat  the  Brownsville 
affair  with  a  change  of  locus — let  it  occur  in  Michigan,  New 
York,  or  Illinois — and  a  new  light  will  be  seen.  Until  then  we 
will  be  as  patient  as  possible,  having  faith  that  finally  the  sym¬ 
pathy  of  the  whole  country  will  be  given  to  that  section  which 
has  been  so  tried  in  the  school  of  disaster,  a  section  which 
stands  face  to  face  with  the  perplexities  and  dangers  of  the 
most  difficult  question  any  people  on  earth  were  ever  called 
on  to  meet  and  solve.  When  all  the  States  comprehend  this 
question,  which  now  they  barely  apprehend,  they  will  help  us 
of  the  South  to  make  it  certain  that  the  homes  of  white  men  in 
a  white  man’s  country  will  be  protected  by  white  men  only. 
[Loud  applause.'] 

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